“The Magic Mountain” – 100 Years

Thomas Mann in Davos
Standing on the ice rink, from left: Frieda Impekoven (mother of Niddy Impekoven), Martin Platzer (editor of the "Davoser Blätter"), Thomas Mann, the ice dancer Niddy Impekoven. (ETH Library Zürich, Thomas Mann Archive / Photographer: Emil Meerkämper)

“The Magic Mountain” – 100 Years: Let us celebrate with you

“The Magic Mountain” was published exactly one hundred years ago. We are celebrating this anniversary with a wealth of inspiring events and activities centred around Thomas Mann’s novel – at home and abroad, with films, readings and a proper celebration.

The “Magic Mountain”, published in 1924, is one of the peaks of world literature: in both the literal and figurative sense. Set in a lung sanatorium in the alpine scenery of Davos, the novel brings together a variety of curious characters. We listen to discussions about medicine and philosophy. We experience the outbreak of the First World War, which makes all these discussions seem null and void. At the centre: Hans Castorp, a young engineer, whom we accompany on his journey from the lowlands of Hamburg to the high mountains of Switzerland. The novel is also a peak work in terms of its linguistic design and, not least, its scope: Mann’s masterful composition comprises no less than 1100 pages and is full of allusions to various discourses such as philosophy, technology, politics, psychoanalysis and music.

How do we read the novel today, and what does “The Magic Mountain” still have to tell us? We invite you to explore and discover its literary world.

Literature meets technology: videos for the “Magic Mountain” anniversary

To mark the anniversary, the Thomas Mann Archive is producing a video series that places "The Magic Mountain" in the context of ETH Zurich and demonstrates its contemporary relevance. Documents from the archive's own holdings and images of historical sites form the background against which experts take a new look at the epochal novel.

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The protagonist Hans Castorp's journey from Hamburg to the Swiss mountains shows a special connection between the history of the Rhaetian Railway and ETH Zurich.
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In “The Magic Mountain”, music is played on a brand new gramophone. Thomas Mann’s description of technical and media modernisation also shows new forms of music consumption.
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Language changes with its historical, cultural, and technological background. How to translate “The Magic Mountain” into today’s English after 100 years?
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“The Magic Mountain” is in more ways than one a testimony to the beginnings of X-ray diagnostics. But what does this mean? And how is today’s research at ETH Zurich advancing diagnostic technologies?

All about the "Magic Mountain"

The original manuscript of “The Magic Mountain” is lost. However, you can find a photograph of this impressive stack of pages in our image database. Discover more by entering the search terms “Davos” or “Zauberberg” in our databases.

Our co-operation partner, the Buddenbrookhaus in Lübeck, offers a central website with international events on “The Magic Mountain”. Find out more at external page www.derzauberberg.de

Save the date: This year’s Thomas Mann Lecture at ETH Zurich will take place on 03 December 2024 and will be devoted to "The Magic Mountain".